Roaring success of family fundraisers celebrated with a roaring twenties night

Since 2005, when Tommy Salisbury was diagnosed with choroideremia at the age of just five years old, his family has been at the forefront of the Fight for Sight. This year, after more than a decade of fantastic fundraising, they’re marking the incredible milestone of raising in excess of £500,000 for research into choroideremia.

Choroideremia is a rare inherited condition which causes progressive loss of vision. There is no treatment for the condition – yet. But the Salisbury family have teamed up with the UK’s leading eye research charity, Fight for Sight, to fundraise specifically for research into choroideremia.

And having reached the magnificent milestone of half a million, how did they choose to celebrate? With a fundraising event that generated another £1,600!

More than 100 guests donned their glad rags and 1920s style flapper dresses for a casino night to mark the Tommy Salisbury Fund’s momentous milestone. Guests were served a gin cocktail on arrival and canapes throughout the evening and, by all counts, everyone played the tables, danced and had fun.

Emma Salisbury, Tommy’s Mum and the driving force behind the fundraising, said: “I can’t believe what a huge success it was. I think it was the best event we have ever organised! Everyone had so much fun dressing up, not one person came without looking like they were from the Peaky Blinders or the Mafia and the girls looked gorgeous! We danced, laughed and gambled all evening. This really is a massive milestone in our journey in finding a treatment for choroideremia and we have had so much fun in raising this money, reaching £500k is just unbelievable!! I have so many people to thank who have been supporting us since 2005 and helped us achieve this milestone.”

The total figure from the thirteen years of fundraising stands at £546,199.17 (as of February 2018).

As a result of these fundraising efforts, researchers have progressed to clinical trials on a potential treatment for Tommy’s condition – just last month researchers moved into Phase III trials, moving one step closer to the goal of the first ever treatment for choroideremia.